Peter Gabriel – “Wallflower”
Peter Gabriel
This may be one of the greatest Peter Gabriel songs to dig its way into my head. It’s off his 1982 album Peter Gabriel (titled by Geffen, against his will, Security), but it appears he’s reworking it for his upcoming follow-up to the companion to Scratch Your Back, to be titled and I’ll Scratch Yours … no release date known yet, unfortunately. The lyrics are a wrenching portrayal of the mistreatment of the mentally ill merged with the mistreatment of political prisoners, and it opened many Americans’ eyes to Apartheid. Whether you haven’t heard it before, or if you’re hearing it again for the first time in years, “Wallflower” will leave you breathless.
EDIT: Several people have visited this page over the last couple weeks and they’ve found a dead video, thanks to EMI. Here’s a 2010 live version recorded by Peter Gabriel which is still live on YouTube. The song is way to good not to be able to hear it.
Hey Jude: Theremin Version
Seriously, this is beyond words “awesome” … in a nerdtastic kind of way.
It sure beat the hell out of Sheldon Cooper’s theramin concert in last night’s episode of The Big Bang Theory:
Jon Dee Graham – “Not Beautifully Broken”
Jon Dee Graham and his beautiful "fiction."
If you get to go to Austin and check out James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards play a midnight set at The Continental Club on Wednesday nights, you may get to see this legend, Jon Dee Graham, opening for him. (I haven’t had the chance, being that I’m blind as a bat, don’t drive none, and had the misfortune of not landing in a music city like Austin post-College, but there’s always the bucket list.)
As for this song, “Not Beautifully Broken,” which is included live here with “Giliad” as well, I think Graham sums the tone up just fine:
“This song is purely fiction, let’s get that out of the way right now. Fictional character has a fictional … let’s call it a breakdown … has to go away to a fictional “institution,” for a fictionally-mandated 110 days, with a fictional happy ending.”
Doesn’t that sound like a fun piece of “fiction”? I’m starting to sense a theme building in today’s posts 
James McMurtry – “Peter Pan” (Live)
The Great McMurtry
Following the trail from Railroad Earth, I wandered through the YouTube highways and stumbled on this great live version of “Peter Pan,” recorded as part of the Music Fog showcase at Threadgill’s WHQ in Austin, Texas, Filmed during SXSW 2010. This video links to an awesome McMurtry list which should keep you entertained if you dare sit and listen to the whole thing, courtesy of Kink Radio.
The song is one of his best straightforward character sketches — Lyrics below as usual!
~ ~ ~
Beer cans to the ceiling
ashtray on the floor
laundry on the sofa
need I say more
I walked out with my hair wet
I caught one awful cold
should have been more careful
should have done like I was told
I can’t believe it
how could it be
just like you said could happen
so it did to me
Just when I might have seen the light of day
I crossed my eyes ’til they stayed that way
(chorus)
I keep my distance
as best I can
living out my time here in Never Never land
I can’t grow up
’cause I’m too old now
I guess I really did it this time mom
The boogie man came calling
I said I wasn’t home
he didn’t believe me
he wasn’t alone
he had my number
he got my goat
he bought my ticket
he paid off my note
and he left in a hurry
said he couldn’t stay
I guess he had his reasons
I’m not the one to say
(chorus)
Lets go chase tornadoes
just me and you
you don’t often catch ‘em
but man when you do
just take my catch rope
and crawl out on the wing
we won’t come down ’till we own that thing
then we’ll sit out on the front porch
quiet as a mouse
one last time before they close on the house
(chorus)
Railroad Earth – “The Jupiter & the 119 (Edit)”
Railroad Earth
If you need an Americana pick-me-up, and Lord knows we all do this time of year in the midwest) here’s something new from Railroad Earth — the “edit” of “The Jupiter & The 119″ (with the intro suite taken out to keep it a manageable seven minutes in length). It’s the (albeit accidental) story of the transcontinental railroad by Todd Sheaffer, which — to quote their press release — “recounts the hammering of the Golden Spike as a metaphor for national unity in today’s highly charged political climate.”
Okay, or it could just be a really great song about the great trains that built this nation — either way’s good enough for me. Give the track a listen, it’s addictive!
Streaming Link: Railroad Earth – “The Jupiter & The 119″
To further quote the press release, the band’s new album is getting rave reviews — Railroad Earth “evokes Full Moon Fever-era Tom Petty,” according to Vanity Fair. And the album landed at #5 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, for bands which have never been inside the top 100. But with music this good, you just have to listen and trust us. Or we’ll keep heaping on the hyperbole.
I’ll lead you out with another classic Railroad Earth slow-burner:
Follow-up: Sims – “Burn It Down” (Video)
I wrote a while back of Sims’ upcoming sophomore album Bad Time Zoo, but couldn’t play you the single, “Burn It Down.” Now the video’s official, and you can enjoy it in all it’s glory! The new album drops February 15th, via Doomtree Records.
Let’s get it going,
Less emotion, more emulsion …
let’s burn it down!
Let’s get it going,
Less emotion, more emulsion …
let’s burn it down!
Let’s get it going,
Less emotion, more emulsion …
let’s burn it BLACK!
Down to the ashes
Start from the scratch
and then build it all back!
Welcome to the Veldt indeed … I can’t wait to get my hands on this one!
Whip My Hair: The Long Lost Folk Version
Willow Smith’s got nothing on this “classic” by Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen (well … Bruce Springsteen anyway, and Jimmy Fallon doing his best Neil Young). This was the highlight of New Years’ Eve after the family watched Willow Smith do her thing on ABC. Got to give the nine year old credit for digging up such a rare gem of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen awesomeness. And who knew Young had such grasp of today’s lingo?
Ben Folds Five on Sessions @ West 54th
The best live-music showcase to be unceremoniously axed.
Whatever you think of Ben Folds, his band’s performance when on Sony’s Sessions at West 54th was one for the archives. I fell in love with the band when watching it, and it’s no wonder: raw performances abounded, the band’s full talent was showcased, and the performances in general kept the audience in awe for well more than the thirty minutes the TV show would allow. Hence the most awesome DVD-concert of all time, which included all the extras we hadn’t gotten to see (including most of the bloody performance).
Watch “Theme From Dr. Pyser” and dare not to be astounded!
Or “Missing the War”:
Or “Selfless, Cold and Composed”
and have a happy New Year! 
Added bonus: this kid named “DT” put on an equally raucous performance of “Theme From Dr. Pyser” which deserves to be seen. Enjoy!
A Post A Day … or: How I Slowly Lost It in 2011
Resolution Schmesolution!
Call me Ishmael … I mean, crazy. I’ve been wanting to make sure to post more regularly to “Hear! Hear!” in 2011, and WordPress has given me a jump-start toward obsessive-compulsion just in time for New Year’s Eve. So I’m going to pick up the challenge and attempt to post at least once a day in the coming year as part of their postaday2011 challenge.
But I’ve had another idea on my mind for a while. Each year I hear way more albums than I ever get a chance to review, and that means a lot of great music falls by the wayside — I’ll get a review copy and give it a couple listens, and then it disappears into the quagmire of my hard-drive, never to be found again until way later, when I can’t even remember where it came from.
So in 2011 I am aiming to do a more heady challenge than just posting each day. I want to post each album. Any album I give more than a cursory glance, I must write about it. Not necessarily a 700-word review, perhaps, but it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with a hundred words to say about each album I hear (whether that be good or bad). My theory is that in an average year I may write about sixty or seventy albums I really enjoy, but a lot of the more average material (but still deserving some note) albums just slip aside. I may hear hundreds that just are gone.
No more! 2011 will be the “Year of the Album” if it drives me over the edge.
And if you stick around and read regularly, you may end up finding yourself a few new favorites as well.
I’m going to get this one started a bit early and post about an EP I was emailed by Matt Conner over at Stereo Subversion. It’s not going to be an official contribution to the “Year of the Album,” since it’s not 2011, but it’s something new that you ought to check out:
The Wellspring
Dov Rosenblatt (formerly of New York’s “Fools For April,” joined up with Talia Osteen (a former VP at a film production company) and somehow the duo has managed to create the perfect aural hybrid which keeps reminding me of Caedmon’s Call, particularly on the stunning “Oh New York,” which will give music producers for the likes of Grey’s Anatomy fits. The music’s kept simple, which allows the songwriting to shine through in all it’s glory. And though there’s nothing spectacularly new here, who needs new when we can get something comfortingly familiar instead? The EP is remarkably consistently developed, and I think this bodes well for where the Wellspring could take their music in the coming months.
Here’s hoping more than a few people actually get to hear it!
~~~
Hear the EP:
http://www.thewellspringmusic.com/
